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Sunday, August 7, 2016

Chicken Stock, Cheap Recipes

Chicken stock is the easiest food to make. You buy bone in chicken -on sale. You cook chicken. You save the bones, either in the freezer or refrigerator, depending on when you plan to make the stock.

Grab a pan or the crock pot, place the bones and cover them with water. Cook on low heat for an hour or two. That's it. Mine simmered for two hours and I watched that the water didn't evaporate. The trick is low heat.

I strained the broth from the bones by using a sieve with cheese cloth. I have done it a number of times without the cheese cloth and it works fine. Place the bowl of broth in the refrigerator to get cold. By doing this the fat rises to the top and solidifies. Using a spoon scrape the fat off and discard.

You may find lots of small pieces of chicken fell off the bones. This can be used in a soup or stew.

With one whole chicken three to four meals can be had. Roasted in the oven or crock pot, sandwiches, broth for mushroom soup, (or soup of choice), and chicken soup.

The broth is virtually free. I might add it's also nutritional. Hands on time is about seven minutes in total.

This batch gelled a bit which is a
very good thing. Sometimes it
comes out like a thin fluid, others
it gels. I'm not sure why the
difference, though.

The uses for the broth can be endless when imagination is used. I use it to cook the rice a roonie mix, mushroom soup, and as a base for a roast in the crock pot. I'd be interested in hearing what my readers could add to this small list. I'm always up to learning new things.

3 comments:

Chicken is also a favorite in our kitchen. I buy French poultry from free-range production.A middle-sized chicken costs about 10 Euros. Usually I fry the legs with a portion of the back and cook the rest very slowly on very low heat. With soup vegetables like carrot, leak, onion, parsley and also bay leave, pepper grains and clove. The tender chicken breast is then used for a ragout and the rest is for a soup.

I love making stock - real soul food.I freeze my carcasses until I'm ready to make a stock but I also freeze brocolli stems, peelings from pumpkins, swedes, turnips etc and I chuck in all that plus a quartered onion (with the brown skin still on), a halved carrot and a woody celery stick along with a bunch of herbs. Makes a fab base for pretty much everything I make with the stock: Soups, risotto, casserole, my version of pot noodles, dahl. Super healthy, super tastey! EnjoyRachel xx

I use to make stock the same as you do. Very goof tasting. Since it's just me now, I have altered many things to fit my personal needs. All of your frugal moves on making stock are very impressive. I'm glad you enjoy stock this way. So good for you.

About Me

Home and hearth is the center of my life. Cooking, gardening, and (yes) cleaning make me happy. My large family keeps me hopping and I love every minute of it. I think I was born with a frugal outlook and get excited about anything frugal. I like to share frugal tips and experiment with new ideas in the kitchen. Creativity is not a gift of mine so my only craft is crocheting and sometimes sewing. I admire those who can see life in a creative manner.